Gene expression profiles of hepatoma cell line BEL-7402.

Background/Aims: To investigate the gene expression of cancer related genes in hepatoma cell line BEL-7402 through the usage of Atlas Human Cancer Array with 588 well-characterized human genes related with cancer biology. Methodology: Hybridization of cDNA membrane was performed with 32 P-labeled cDNA probes synthesized from RNA isolated from Human hepatoma cell line BEL-7402 and non-cirrhotic normal liver which was liver transplantation donor. Bioinformatics was used to analyze the result. The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction of 24 pairs of specimens and northern blot of 4 pairs of specimens were used to confirm the expression pattern of some genes identified by Atlas arrays hybridization. Results: The differential expression cell cycle/ growth regulator in hepatoma cell line BEL-7402 showed a stronger tendency toward cell proliferation with up-regulation of E2F-3 and TFDP-2. The antiapoptotic factors such as Akt-1 were up-regulated. Whereas the promotive genes of apoptosis were down-regulated, such as BAK and caspase-3. Besides this, some genes were up-regulated, such as Integrin beta 8, DNA-PK, CSPCP, cyclin C etc. A number of genes were down-regulated, which included LAR, ABL2, SKY, TDGF1 etc. In general, expression of the cancer progression genes were up-regulated, while expression of anti-cancer progression genes were down-regulated. The results of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction of 24 pairs of specimens and Northern Blot of 4 pairs of specimens were consistent with the expression pattern of some genes identified by Atlas arrays hybridization. Conclusions: Investigation of gene expression profile of hepatoma cell line BEL-7402 should help to disclose the molecular mechanism of the onset, progression and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The quick and high-throughout method of profiling gene expression by cDNA array provides us with an overview of key factors that may be involved in hepatocellular carcinoma, and may find the clue to the study of hepatocellular carcinoma carcinogenesis and molecular targets of diagnosis and therapy.